DeWITT  —  Cooley Group, Inc., a printing and promotional-products firm, didn’t stop at a new logo when it jumped into a rebranding effort in late 2010 — an effort that focused the firm on its ability to help clients build their own brands.

Rochester–based Cooley Group, which operates a Syracuse–area office at 6700 Kirkville Road in DeWitt, unveiled its new brand in November 2010. The firm redesigned its logo, adopted the tagline “brand new,” and renamed its sales representatives, calling them brand consultants.

Those changes are giving the company a new sense of momentum nearly two years later, according to Cooley Group Executive Vice President Jim Bonaventura, who is based in the firm’s office in DeWitt.

“It’s taken some time to get some traction, but we’re starting to reap the benefits of it,” he says. “What we’ve done is tried to give greater clarity to our customers as to what our areas of expertise are, as well as greater clarity to our co-owners, the brand consultants, so they feel that the customer knows exactly what we’re there to help them with.”

Cooley Group is an employee-owned company under an employee stock-ownership plan. The firm generated about $11 million in revenue in 2011, the first full year after it revealed its new branding. Its Syracuse–area office was responsible for $4.5 million of that revenue.

The companywide and local revenue totals represent annual growth of about 6 percent, Bonaventura says. He believes the firm’s rebranding helped it grow that year but does not have any revenue growth projections for 2012.

Branding changes at Cooley Group came after 18 months of company soul-searching. The company, which Clarence (Scoop) Cooley started in 1945 as Cooley Business Forms, had grown beyond its original focus on business-form distribution. 

Changes in technology over the years, from desktop printers to computer programs, forced the company to branch out into different areas like promotional products, according to Bonaventura. It no longer relies on business forms, he says.

“A lot of that business was taken away by technology,” he says. “People print things on white 20-pound paper now instead of invoices. So we got involved in some different product lines, and, as a result, there was a little bit of a disconnect with our end users about exactly who we were and what we were doing.”

The disconnect wasn’t helped by a name change to Cooley Group, Inc. about a dozen years ago, Bonaventura says. However, the recent rebranding emphasized four company business groups — printing, promotional products, specialty printing, and branded apparel — and helped to redefine the firm, he adds.

Bonaventura wasn’t a part of the committee that handled the rebranding process. Another Cooley Group employee from the Syracuse–area office, Karie Ballway, took part in that effort.

“We really looked into, as an organization, what it is we do well for our clients,” says Ballway, who is a brand consultant. “We really want to come in, sit down, learn about a client, and determine if and when there’s a need. If it’s appropriate, then we will make recommendations about what mechanism we would recommend they use to brand their company, whether it’s a printed product, promotional product, or branded apparel.”

Emphasizing a consultative approach led Cooley Group to change the name of the sales-representative position to brand consultant, according to Ballway. 

The company’s new tagline, “brand new,” serves a dual purpose, she says. It pointed out that the company had rebranded itself while also summarizing its new focus.

“Cooley was brand new at the initial launch, but we knew that we would follow through with our marketing and branding efforts to help you, as a client, brand new,” Ballway says.

The company’s local clients include DeWitt–based Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists, PC, Skaneateles–based ChaseDesign, LLC, and KBM Management, Inc. of DeWitt.

Despite its own expertise in branding, Cooley Group hired an outside firm, Trainor Associates of New Hartford, to help with its own rebranding. The outside perspective was important in the process, according to Ballway.

Cooley Group employs a total of 35 people in offices in Rochester, DeWitt, Albany, New Hartford, Rock Tavern in the Hudson Valley, and in a recently opened office in Huntington on Long Island. Its office in DeWitt has eight full-time employees and two part-time workers.

The company leases 1,250 square feet of space at 6700 Kirkville Road from Oliva Properties, LLC of DeWitt.       

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

SYRACUSE — A business launched over the summer in the Syracuse Student Sandbox is running a crowd-funding campaign to raise startup funds.

Two Syracuse University students, Dee Cater and Heather Rinder, founded Scrapsule and worked on the idea during this year’s sandbox program. Both have graduated, but are staying in Syracuse to keep working on the company.

Scrapsule is a Web-based tool that pulls photos, videos, and status updates from a user’s social-media feeds and organizes them into a virtual, online scrapbook. The idea is to fund the business with micro-transactions, Rinder says.

The site itself will be free, but users would pay small fees to add personal touches to their online scrapbooks, Rinder says. Personalization could include different font choices, backgrounds, templates, and photo- cropping options.

Cater and Rinder are running their funding campaign at http://www.indiegogo.com/scrapsulecampaign. Indiegogo will allow the pair to access their funds regardless of whether they reach their $5,000 goal, Rinder says.

She and Cater plan to use the money for entrance fees to business competitions and to improve the site. At the moment, they’re funding the company with their own money.

They’ve contracted with developers at Bear Fountain Design of Geneseo to build a prototype of the Scrapsule site. It’s a basic first take, Rinder says.

“There really is a lot left to do,” she adds.

Cater is handling design work for the site, but says she and Rinder don’t have the technical expertise to build it. They’re hoping to add technical staff in the near future so they can add more features to the prototype.

Some of the money from the Indiegogo campaign may go toward hiring as well.

Cater, Scrapsule CEO, came up with the idea. She says she collects plenty of material to make scrapbooks, but never has time to organize it and put it all together.

She started looking for an online service that could help.

“There was nothing,” she says.

Cater brought the idea to Rinder, Scrapsule’s chief operating officer, who says she has been scrapbooking for years. She liked the concept of an online scrapbooking tool immediately.

Rinder says she spent a week last summer pulling photos together for a printable photo book after an internship. A product like Scrapsule would have been a big help, she adds.

The site pulls content from users’ social networks based on keyword searches and organizes the results by topic.

People have been asking when the service will be available, Cater says.

“I need it,” she says. “I know other people need it.”

Cater and Rinder are planning to launch the site by the end of the year.

Scrapsule was one of 34 teams to participate in the Sandbox program this year. The initiative began in 2009 with five teams.
Housed in the Tech Garden in downtown Syracuse, its goal is to help students from area colleges develop and accelerate their business ideas.

Scrapsule was also one of 15 Sandbox teams that presented their ideas at the program’s annual Demo Day on Aug. 15. Craftistas, a subscription service that delivers do-it-yourself fashion kits based on current trends, won the Demo Day pitch contest.       

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com